To me, the Fantastic Four are among the most boring comic characters ever created. And their pseudo-scientific jargon get's real old, real fast.

Most story arcs involving the Fantastic Four are boring and all members of the group except for Reed Richards are just as boring.

@night_thrasher:

@jorgevy: @lvenger: Sarcasm folks

It got a good deal of critical acclaim according to these sources. And I loved that film.

The film received high critical acclaim from critics, receiving a 97% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes^[27] which made the movie the fifteenth most highly rated animated film of all time.^[28]Metacritic indicates the film "universal acclaim" with a 90 out of 100 rating.^[29] Critic Roger Ebertawarded the film 3½ stars out of 4, writing that the film "alternates breakneck action with satire of suburban sitcom life" and is "another example of Pixar's mastery of popular animation."^[30]Rolling Stonegave the film 3½ stars and called the film "one of the year's best" and said that it "doesn't ring cartoonish, it rings true."^[31] Also giving the film 3½ stars, People magazine found that The Incredibles"boasts a strong, entertaining story and a truckload of savvy comic touches."^[32]

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was bored by the film's recurring pastiches of earlier action films, concluding, "the Pixar whizzes do what they do excellently; you just wish they were doing something else."^[33] Similarly, Jessica Winter of The Village Voice criticized the film for playing as a standard summer action film, despite being released in early November. Her review, titled as "Full Metal Racket," noted that "The Incredibles announces the studio's arrival in the vast yet overcrowded Hollywood lot of eardrum-bashing, metal-crunching action sludge."

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone named The IncrediblesNo. 6 on his list of the decade's best films, writing "Of all the Pixar miracles studded through the decade, The Incredibles still delights me the most. It's not every toon that deals with midlife crisis, marital dysfunction, child neglect, impotence fears, fashion faux pas and existential angst."^[34]

The National Review Online named The Incredibles No. 2 on its list of the 25 best conservative movies of the last 25 years saying that it "celebrates marriage, courage, responsibility, and high achievement.

they flopped??? i never knew.... I loved that movie

@reignmaker: @fodigg: @jorgevy: Exactly!....Which was the exact reason why The Incredibles was a huge flop! And no adult will ever watch it!

@nightwing4: I disagree. I think the "tiny titans" idea could have legs. But, I do think the isolation of the book from the rest of the Marvel Universe is more of an advantage than a disadvantage. Events sell!...that's the mantra of the BIG TWO for the past decade! The Fantastic Four is a book custom made to have events every month! Read the Lee/Kirby run, it was basically event after event. The Inhuman Saga led directly into the Galactus Trilogy. This should and has been previously been a book of events!

because they're a family.

that can sell to families in comedy shows but it wont sell to the comics demographic. atleast IMO

even if the mom is super hot, the uncle super awesome, the other "uncle" super awesome too, and if the kids have crazy abilties

Marvel is missing out on not putting out a FF version of DC's "Tiny Titans." geared toward children. The book feels too isolated from the rest of marvel. Marvel's first family should be at the center of attention IMO. Also the characters aren't too relatable. Particularly Reed.

Because they're family friendly and that's not edgy enough.

The majority of modern comic fans don't seem to seek what the FF are providing.

@knighthood: Bagley! I loved him on Amazing and Thunderbolts...but his Fantastic Four just seems off. And Fraction's story is a solid one, but in comparison to what immediately preceded it, it does seem like a bit of a let down.

It's all good. I think I'm going to do something else with my next blog but I think it's self explanatory why Morrison should write Fantastic Four. It's like a match made in heaven! Ellis is the only other writer I can think of that hasn't already written 616 FF that even comes close.

@night_thrasher: I like 'em. In fact I prefer them over the Avengers, but their current book is horrid. I'm not sure who to blame, Fraction or Bagley. I read other Fraction books and enjoy them immensely. I've never been a fan of Bagley.

Yep. I started to take a closer look and found that their adventures were really amazing compared to the other Marvel properties. I think it has to do with the fact that they are obviously adults for the most part, and the readership is generally skewed towards younger boys who aren't interested in reading a story about a pregnant superheroine, a story where a scientist is the hero using his intelligence and not claws and etc.

Bad movies.

@night_thrasher: Oops heh heh - looking forward to your next blogs if they are as good as this one. Thanks for shining a light on Marvels First Family.

Because Marvel has allowed too many other characters to outshine them over the years.

In my opinion, the the Four always seemed, well...mediocre. Even in awesome books like Marvels and Earth X when it comes to the Fantastic Four parts I tend to start skimming.

And then there is Reed. He is just insufferable, which would be fine if everyone he interacts with realized it too. Instead, it seems like everyone not named Doom agrees on what a great guy he is.

there lame

One more thing I'll say, I think a lot of people have a hard time relating to Reed. He comes off as this super-smart douche sometimes. While there's clearly other smart characters in comics that we're ok with, for whatever reason it's tough to care where Reed is coming from sometimes.

@night_thrasher:

Family doesn't sell. Sex, emo, angst, etc. - these things sell.

I love the Fantastic Four for the reasons you've listed. I also feel that their current two books bring something new and fresh to my pull list every month. But most people would rather pick up an extra book about mutants.

I've read the FF every now and then and have collected a decent amount of runs of it over the years. I think the thing is that they're considered to be a bit wishy-washy in terms of character. The whole "we're a good family that gets along" idea so solidly incarnated in the book that they don't seem like they're for real. I know from reading myself that they do have their squabbles and personal crises, but that's not as clear to non-readers.

Plus, they're do-gooders. They don't have the rebel, underground edge of the X-Men, and they don't have the aggressiveness and bravado of the Avengers. A lot of times they're also not connected into big Marvel events as much as the other teams, which makes them feel less essential. Plus, there's all these kids hanging around, which can make them feel tied down and parent-y, and people generally read comics for escapism. Parenting is the opposite of escapism! Even in terms of pure sex appeal, it's hard for them to position Sue Storm as source of attraction without it seeming too unethical/creepy because of her "good wife and mother" role.

It would also help if more of their villains had a personal beef with the team, instead of being random cosmic foes that need to be taken care of for the good of humanity. Doom, of course, has a very personal beef, but not many others. Speaking of big events, how is it that the FF wasn't involved in Annihilation, for instance, when Annihilus is one of their main foes? Of course it was an off-Earth storyline, but they could have been tied in.

Plus, and I know this may seem picky, they have the whole thing where everyone wears the same uniform, and those uniforms are kind of generic. This takes away from the characters' uniqueness.

Overall, I like the FF, but they don't write (or draw) themselves. They tend to only work when they have a really good writer and/or artist.

Honestly I was going to make this a series of blogs and my next two were going to be "Why Grant Morrison should write Fantastic Four" and "Why Warren Ellis should write Fantastic Four". Dude you mindraped me!

Fantastic Four suffers a lot from competition, and really this is something that a lot of various historic comic book teams and characters have had to deal with, but a lot of Marvel and DC characters succeed and sell by either being relatable to fans (as opposed to being realistic) or by tapping into certain wish fulfillment fantasies and power trips for fans. Earlier on this was okay as Fantastic Four offered things other books couldn't touch, many things you mention in your blog (which was superbly written by the way) but now days those things aren't exclusive to Fantastic Four anymore. Many modern indy comic books have better hard science and better fantasy science than Fantastic Four. Planetary I found did Fantastic Four better than modern day Fantastic Four. Hickman did pretty good, especially in comparison to other modern writers but even his stories I found disappointing. Fans basically have alternatives as far as comic science. I similar problem exists with characters like Superman who use to do better comic sales wise when he was the only flying powerhouse character with his name on a cover.

Oh and the villain point is a great one, except not only do so many other comic series in Marvel get to use the villains who appeared in Fantastic Four first, but arguably some comic book series utilize such villains even better than Fantastic Four do. I tend to enjoy the Celestials in Thor more (and to be fair they appeared there before FF) but even Galactus I tend to prefer in mini series or series with Surfer as main star or Thor again, or Avengers. Anyway just that they appear so many places dilutes their draw as far as FF.

I basically think there are a lot of ways to make Fantastic Four successful, but get the combination wrong and the book will suffer and that balance is a lot trickier to get right than say Justice League, X-Men or Hulk. I think Fantastic Four basically does best when its a team of explorers who happen to be family exploring the nooks, crannies, corners of the Marvel Universe - introducing us to cool and strange concepts, realities, characters. Except whoever is the writer needs to do that better than any other book out there does. Basically I think this book needs Grant Morrison heh heh.

In theory Ive always kinda liked the Fantastic Four but in reality they just seem boring to me and I have no idea why. It might have something to do with me not really liking stretchy dudes, Ive never liked those types of powers, although I'm sure the ladies wouldn't mind him.

@strider92: @kilomac29: I've only recently got into the FF (Millar's run). Since then I've been reading and digging into the back issues. The depth of the catalog is amazing! The first 50 issues contains what would be drawn out over about five or six years in today's comics!

The only exposure to the FF i've had has been via the movie (urg), some guest stars in Spider-man and a few other cross-overs. I actually like the Human-Torch a lot! Probably cuz of the whole bromance he and Pete have going on but some of the stuff i've seen from the others hasn't interested me as much. Civil War for example changed my view of Reed.

I feel like you probably have a point here. I think Fantastic Four could be a book I would really enjoy. Unfortunately, at least for me, every time I consider picking up an issue all that comes to mind is that terrible, terrible, movie. Its a roadblock I've yet to overcome with this franchise, but will probably be that much better for it once I finally do.